Mysterious 'Mr. X' Refuses to Take Stand in Dramatic Court Twist

Cody's attorney, Joseph Patituce, previously told ABC News his client believes he was working as part of an elaborate CIA plot to court political support.

Cody's biography appears to offer hints of past work with the intelligence community – he carries a degree from Harvard Law School and was documented to have done a stint in military intelligence. And when he was ultimately identified by U.S. Marshals, it was in part because he had appeared on an FBI most wanted poster in connection to a decades-old charge of espionage.

Patituce said his client was expecting U.S. intelligence officials to bail him out of trouble after U.S. Marshals tracked him down in Portland, Oregon and brought him back to Cleveland to face the state fraud charges.

"He assumed that's what was going to happen," Patituce said. "That he would be pulled out of this by the people handling him."

That is why, the lawyer said, Cody repeatedly refused to identify himself when he was finally captured – signing his name only as "Mr. X" when he was checked into a Cleveland jail.